WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

Posts

author=pianotm
fearful
It's the radiation you get while traveling in between planets, it bites!
They didn't do anything to protect the astronauts on the way to the moon.
The suits back then were more than sufficient to block out the harmful stuff. It's safe to assume that we'll be fine with current tech. If anything, the moon should be more dangerous than mars since: mars actually has an atmosphere (albeit, barely), and that it's several times further from the sun (hence less radiation).

Heck, bananas are more dangerous.
Jeroen_Sol
Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.
3885
I wonder if the astronauts might be in some sort of vehicle that could protect them from radiation while simultaneously propelling them towards Mars? Oh wait.

Also, I thought the biggest problem about sending people to Mars was getting them back? It's pretty easy to send people into space for two years. It's a lot harder to launch a rocket that the giant fuel tanks have already decoupled from, without a previously built launching platform.
I think the main problem was keeping them alive long enough to... do science-y stuff and offset the cost of getting them there. There were no plans for a return trip in the first place, last I checked.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
There are actually other health problems that show up sooner than radiation poisoning if you put someone in space for two years. Your skeleton dissolves, for one thing. We can leave people in the ISS for about nine months at most right now, and that already causes irreversible damage to multiple organs in the human body. It's a thing NASA is still researching, and the research is slow because basically the only way to learn is to send people up into the ISS for nine months and then wait to see what kills them when they come back.
Jeroen_Sol
Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.
3885
Huh, interesting.
and the ISS isn't all that far away from us.
this universe sure is inhospitable.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
karins_soulkeeper
pianotm
fearful
It's the radiation you get while traveling in between planets, it bites!
They didn't do anything to protect the astronauts on the way to the moon.
The suits back then were more than sufficient to block out the harmful stuff.


Actually no. They spent two weeks in the capsule, not in their suits. They only spent a few hours in the suits. There is higher radiation in actual space than on the moon. The capsule itself afforded absolutely zero protection. The astronauts reported that during a large portion of the mission, they saw an extremely high quantity of white flecks in their vision. This is common when exposed to higher degrees of radiation than what we are accustomed to. Remember that the astronauts when in the capsule, are not just flying in a vacuum, but are also traversing all three layers of the Van Allen belt. The reason scientists didn't think this was an issue...is because it's not. You're not going to become a brain hungry mutant if you're exposed to higher than norm radiation. This is the same radiation we are exposed to every day of our lives, just a little bit higher. Most of these astronauts can also assure you that they were perfectly capable of having kids with their wives after their missions were complete. There's no reason to protect them from the radiation of space travel. There just isn't enough to hurt them. And none of it is gamma rays.

It's safe to assume that we'll be fine with current tech. If anything, the moon should be more dangerous than mars since: mars actually has an atmosphere (albeit, barely), and that it's several times further from the sun (hence less radiation).


That's...not how that works. The sun's radiation goes to Mars just as effectively as it does to Earth or the moon. Besides, the sun's radiation isn't the radiation we're talking about. It's the cosmic background radiation we're discussing whenever we talk about space travel.



Heck, bananas are more dangerous.


Particularly when hurled from an air compressor powered PVC cannon.
karins_soulkeeper
I think the main problem was keeping them alive long enough to... do science-y stuff and offset the cost of getting them there. There were no plans for a return trip in the first place, last I checked.


You're getting it confused with Mars One. NASA wants to bring people back, obviously, because how are they going to convince the government to give them money for a Mars mission if they're just leaving people on Mars forever? It's hard enough to get money for anything that isn't a bomb or a gun already.

Last I heard the funding for the Mars program was in jeopardy, since NASA had no fucking idea how they were supposed to get there and get back in a timely fashion. The Moon is going to be hotspot for the next era of Human spaceflight, I'd say- building outposts and colonies and stuff, so they have a place to do cheaper launches towards other deep space landmarks.

It's fair enough, really. Getting to Mars is something that more than one country is going to need to co-operate on to some degree. It'd be pretty sickening if "we" went to Mars and it was just a bunch of Americans plonking and American flag on it.
Dudesoft
always a dudesoft, never a soft dude.
6309
What we need is a ship with a radiation sponge exterior that eliminates radiation constantly, whilst simultaneously fueling the nuclear engine.

:V I know not which I speak.
Yeah, we should try that. Definitely.

I got a radiational dust bunny in my eye and I can't get it out. My eye feels super raw, though.

Maybe I'll go blind in it and finally get myself an eye patch.


Well, while I'm on that train of thought.... Maybe radiation isn't all that bad.
Dudesoft
always a dudesoft, never a soft dude.
6309
I want spider powers. :(
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
@Pizza, Current estimates are that it would take 39 days to reach Mars and 39 days to return. That's because NASA has decided that if they were to launch now, they would use their new ion engine that they used for the Curiosity Rover in 2009. The problem is that the astronauts would still have to remain on Mars for roughly 18 to 20 months. The Mars One mission was being privately funded by somebody nobody has ever heard of. NASA has no trouble figuring out how to do a return trip. For that matter, Virgin Space and SpaceX are perfectly capable firms for the job, too.

You know, I might go back to writing articles on this stuff. I may not have gotten paid much but I enjoyed the work.
Ah, I wasn't exactly certain how far the Ion Engine had progressed. I thought the case was still that they couldn't make a spacecraft big enough to carry everything that would be able to run on the Ion Engines? Although I'm not sure why that would be the case, I just had it in my head that they were only considering Ion Engines for unmanned stuff.

Anyways, I believe that yeah, with them having to stay on Mars for so long, the lack of a complete plan is still an issue. As far as I've heard none of the settlement tech they'd need to live there for so long has gotten very far past initial concept stages. And then there's the issue of the ship, and the funding and shit.

Believe me, I really want people to go to Mars. One of my life aspirations is watching the live Mars landing, just like when people got to watch the live Moon landing 50 years ago. I just didn't know exactly what situation they were in regarding their plans, and I had heard a lot of doom and gloom about it recently.

Also on the table: I'd love to see aquatic missions to Europa and Titan in the future. Very interesting satellites. I was always sad that the Titan Mare Explorer never went through.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Pizza
Ah, I wasn't exactly certain how far the Ion Engine had progressed. I thought the case was still that they couldn't make a spacecraft big enough to carry everything that would be able to run on the Ion Engines? Although I'm not sure why that would be the case, I just had it in my head that they were only considering Ion Engines for unmanned stuff.

Yeah, it's space. In space, you can push a space ship with your pinky finger. Also, they only have to run the (already insanely fuel efficient) engines long enough to get up to speed.

Anyways, I believe that yeah, with them having to stay on Mars for so long, the lack of a complete plan is still an issue. As far as I've heard none of the settlement tech they'd need to live there for so long has gotten very far past initial concept stages. And then there's the issue of the ship, and the funding and shit.

Yeah, it's mostly a money and health issue, not a tech issue. If push comes to shove, they can supply the scientists with enough for a decade long camping trip in a sealed air bubble, but leaving people there that long. Even if nothing goes wrong, a lot can happen to a person in 2 years. That's why my idea is to set up shop on Ceres as kind of a halfway point. It's actually close enough that we could probably send missions there without having to wait too long for planetary realignment. They're talking about constructing a moon base. Why not a facility to act as way station on Ceres? It doesn't even have to be manned, just supplied.

Believe me, I really want people to go to Mars. One of my life aspirations is watching the live Mars landing, just like when people got to watch the live Moon landing 50 years ago. I just didn't know exactly what situation they were in regarding their plans, and I had heard a lot of doom and gloom about it recently.

Yeah, mainstream media talks about mainstream bullshit. You gotta read the hard science stuff to find out what NASA's really thinking and they are VERY optimistic about a Mars mission.

Also on the table: I'd love to see aquatic missions to Europa and Titan in the future. Very interesting satellites. I was always sad that the Titan Mare Explorer never went through.

They're actually talking about that. If a Mars mission works, they're strongly looking at the possibility of manned missions to other points in the solar system and Europa is a hot topic.

Edit: No pun intended. You know hot topic...Europa is ice...
Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
author=LockeZ
There are actually other health problems that show up sooner than radiation poisoning if you put someone in space for two years. Your skeleton dissolves, for one thing. We can leave people in the ISS for about nine months at most right now, and that already causes irreversible damage to multiple organs in the human body. It's a thing NASA is still researching, and the research is slow because basically the only way to learn is to send people up into the ISS for nine months and then wait to see what kills them when they come back.

This is God's way of saying "hey, I gave you your sandbox; stay the hell out of mine."

author=pianotm
Heck, bananas are more dangerous.
Particularly when hurled from an air compressor powered PVC cannon.

"Careful with that, Billy; you'll put an eye out."

"Okay, Mom."

FFOOMP!
Never underestimate the power of sharpened bananas. They're the third most dangerous fruit in the world, right behind coconuts and lemons.
I like this conversation. Penis-flowers are always appreciated in this thread, and others. ^.^
Coconuts are statistically 50 times more lethal than sharks. This documentary shows how dangerous sharks can be during a tornado, a tornado catching a coconut plantation would have unfathomable consequences.

As for lemons, their lethality has been thoroughly explored by Dr. Johnson and Dr. Smartest.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
let us not forget about the whore-attracting nature of lemons
author=Craze
let us not forget about the whore-attracting nature of lemons


If you try that, you better be baptized or things will turn out very bad for you.